Here’s our monthly look at the various commodity ETFs and how they track a simple strategy of buying December futures and rolling them annually. Plus, a comparison to Ag Traders and an overall commodity index.

Some Notes:

1. Only 4 on the commodity contracts we’re tracking are positive on the year, suggesting that buying and holding a commodity market no matter the exposure, would be enough to make you cringe.
2. For the first time this year,  buying and holding futures contracts (on average) are outperforming their etf counterparts.
3. While the Long/Short AG Trader’s Index looks pretty impressive sitting there at +4% or so (compared with -13% for $DBC, the all commodities ETF), it’s been a rough couple of months for the Ag Trader’s as Grain markets have bounced back from yearly lows. If looking for smart commodity exposure, there’s no better time than now to look at the Ag Traders (in our opinion).

(Performance as of 10/31/2014)

(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)
(Disclaimer: Sugar uses the October contract, Soybeans the November contract.)
Long/Short Ag Trader CTA = Barclayhedge Ag Traders Index